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What The Bible Says About Believers Baptism? By Robert D. Anthony, M.Min D.D. |
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Who should be Baptized? Only those who have received Christ as Savior and Lord. In the Bible Faith always Precedes Baptism Acts 8:12-38 describes the incident in the life of Phillip who was one of the seven deacons in the Jerusalem church. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city.This servant of the Lord was a powerful evangelist with great multitudes coming to Christ. However, in the middle of all the excitement we read , 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch. This eunuch was an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Much can be said about this encounter that illustrates correct methods of bring people to Christ. My point is that Phillip began at Isaiah 53 and preached Jesus to him. The eunuch believed the preaching and immediately he wanted to identify with Philip's preaching and with Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" and he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.I just want to point out that the entire verse 37 is deleted in the NIV. I checked several other translations and verse 37 is present in all of them. Philip noted that the Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah the Prophet. "Look, here is water, he said, what dot hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (KJ) It is clearly apparent that only a regenerate (born again) individual, who has exercised saving faith in Christ, can be the proper subject of baptism. Not one case is recorded in the N.T. of any baptism other than faith-witness Baptism. This is why we refer to water baptism as believer's Baptism. Clearly, in the N.T. baptism is the initial public confession of faith in Christ, a consummate picture of the experience of salvation.Apart from personal commitment to Christ water makes no difference in the life of anyone. In the New Testament Baptism occurs after a person trusts Christ as Lord and savior, obeying the command to be immersed in water and raised from it as a picture of the salvation experience that has already occurred. Baptism does not wash your sins away. It has no saving merit! It will not get your to heaven. Baptism comes after conviction and repentance from sin, confession of Christ as Lord and Savior. Believers are baptized not to be saved but because they are born of God. To be baptized is to declare a personal testimony through the symbol of baptism. Baptism testifies that . . . "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11).
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